Oracle Database 10g Express Edition PHP Web Programming

Using Collections and PL/SQL Stored Procedures

PL/SQL associative arrays are the oldest form of collections in the Oracle database. They are limited to use in PL/SQL programs and as pass-by-value and pass-by-reference data types in the OCI8 libraries. Associative array data types cannot be used as column data types when defining column data types in tables.

Oracle added two new collections in Oracle 8i: the VARRAY and NESTED TABLE collection types. These collection types enable you to build scalar arrays as user-defined SQL data types. Oracle collections are defined by using Data Definition Language (DDL) to create user-defined types. As they are SQL data types, you can use these collections as data types when defining columns in database tables, ...